DIY: $4.99 Hair Accessory Organizer

When you 3 month old daughter has this much hair, hair accessories are unavoidable. You can try your hardest to resist, but once you clip that first barrette in her hair you are hooked for life!

In addition to me buying every cute little headband or barrette I see, many people have made me hair accessories for her and that is where the problem lies. I am overflowing with hair accessories and needed a way to organize them. I was talking it over with my sister Luci one day and she said something about seeing an accordion hat rack that would work to organize them and from there the ideas began to flow...

First I went on Amazon in search for an accordion hat rack. I found this one below for $4.99!

 I took it apart.

Painted it pink with the leftover paint I had from decorating her room. (Notice I attached all the knobs on cardboard for easier painting.)

Next, I used some leftover ribbon I had from her room and looped it through the holes of the pieces.

I ended up with all the pieces looking like this: 

I secured the ribbon with a drop of hot glue to the backside of all the pieces.

Then I made sure to press the ribbon down until it stuck and wiped off any excess.

I ended up with all the pieces having ribbons glued to them and just needed to reassemble the hat rack.

I decided to change out the center knobs for some more decorative ones I found at Target.

I hung it up in her room,

and then filled it with all the hair accessories.

Let's just say this is one of the quickest and ONLY projects I have done since she was born. (Just a little busy with a toddler and a 3 month old if you can't tell by the lack of blogs!) It functions great to organize all of her hair accessories and adds some cute decoration to her room. This one is almost full, so I might have to make another one!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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DIY: Hidden Storage Wall Cubby

A few months ago, I wrote a blog about my Paint Only Remodels of our Main Bathroom. Now I have talked about this about a million times before, but if you missed it-- I am only allowed to remodel this house using paint. We plan on building a new house on this land in a few years, so my husband doesn't want me to waste money on something we will eventually bulldoze. (You can read more about it on the blog above.)

Part of the issue with our bathroom is storage. We have three drawers and two cupboards...which are all a perfect height for a toddler to get into and unpack every day while getting ready. It's very annoying. We have tried drawer hooks, but he still gets into them. I set out to create another storage unit on the wall, but we really didn't  have room for another medicine cabinet, so I came up with this idea for Storage Wall Cubbies. A few months ago I created these fake paintings and wrote a little DIY Faking a Painting.

I thought they would be great to use as a cover to a wall cubby! A great way to hide the clutter and add some art to the wall. Here is my little DIY on how I created these Hidden Storage Wall Cubbies

To start you need to create two 10"x10" Storage Wall Cubbies:

1'x4'x7' Pine Boards

2' square of 1/4" plywood

Nailgun (or hammer and small nails)

Miter Saw

Table Saw

Wood Glue

4 small hinges

2 cabinet magnet catches

First cut your 1'x4'x6' pine board into 8 pieces that are 10" long with a 45 degree angle on each piece:

Each cubby will need 4 boards that look like below. I like to line them up to make sure they are all the exact same size.

With the boards above, you will assemble your wall cubby. I started with gluing the boards together to make a square.

You will end up with a square like below. (Use can use a L-square ruler to make sure it is square.)

Using an nail gun (or just a hammer and nails) reinforce the box in each corner.

Measure the outside of your cubby box and cut the 2' square of 1/4" plywood into two pieces to be the back of your cubby box. My cubbies are 10"x10" so I cut the plywood to be a 10"x10" square.

Attach the back using a nail gun (or hammer and nails) to create more support to the box. 

You now have a finished wall cubby (or two in my case!)

Now we need to sand and paint it to look professional :) Most likely, you will have some sort of a little gap where the boards meet. Use some wood fill to fill this gap.

Let it dry overnight.

Then sand it with 60 grit, 100 grit, and then 200 grit.

Paint the box your desired color. My frames on my fake paintings are brown, so I matched the color for the cubbies. 

After two coats and a day of drying you should have two wall cubbies that look like this:

Next, install the hinges. Measure two inches from the top and bottom on the frame of your fake paintings.

Install the hinges and you will have a frame that looks like this:

Next, on the cubbies mark where the hinges of the fake painting will meet cubbie. Make sure you give them enough room to close and line up on the cubby straight.

Drill holes in the cubby for the hinges and then screw the hinges in place. 

Now to attach the magnetic catches. These will make sure the frame on the front will stay closed.

Measure two inches to the inside of the cubbies.

Install the magnetic catches. 

On the frame of the fake paintings, install the metal plate for the magnetic catches.

You should end up with some finished Hidden Storage Wall Cubbies that look like this.

Install them on the wall, preferable in a stud so they can handle weight of whatever you put in them. Once installed you have a couple of Hidden Storage Wall Cubbies that hide all your junk you don't want people to see and 

add a little wall decoration to the bathroom at the same time!

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Garage Sale Redo: The Ikea Trofast Shelf Part 2

The time has finally arrived, the reveal of the Garage Sale Idea Trofast Shelf.

If you recall in my last few blogs, I have been looking for a way to add more toy storage to our house. I originally built this open bookshelf, but it has proven to not be enough storage needed for all the toys we have accumulated over the last almost 2 years. 

With the second child coming, I knew we would need something else. That was when I saw this beauty of a organizer at a garage sale for $5.  (Garage Sale Redo: The Ikea Trofast Shelf)

However, I did not like how it fit with the bottom piece--it was just not wide enough and looked very funny. I decided to add some side shelves to the Ikea Trofast Shelf (here is the tutorial DIY: Building Furniture Side Bookshelves) and ended up with something like this:

After the shelves were added, I sanded and primed the Trofast Bin Shelf.

Then I painted it to match the lower unit. (Please ignore my super messy shop, just one the thing many things on my to-do list to organize!)

 I attached it to the open toy box and filled it with the bins.

It was complete!! We have lots of extra toy storage and a place for books to go!

Also, as an added bonus I found out that I had some baskets that fit the top of it perfectly, so even more toy storage!! (Just so you know, half of the bins are empty and the baskets are empty, just room for more toys someday!) 

Anyways, it's amazing what you can find at garage sales and what you can build with just a little extra work. I hope I have inspired some of you out there to go treasure hunting at garage sales soon! Until then, happy building and painting!!

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DIY: Building Furniture Side Bookshelves

This is sort of a continuing to my previous blog of the Garage Sale Redo: The Ikea Trofast Shelf. Last week I picked up this Ikea Trofast storage unit at a garage sale for $5!

source

I had an idea, let's just throw this on top of the current toy box and use it for the extra storage. However, when I put it on top, I didn't like how the width did not match the toy box width below. 

I came across this photo on pinterest and thought it was a great idea to add to the sides to make the width match!

source

Here is my little DIY on how you can add these shelves to really any furniture you have around your house, whether it's an Ikea Trofast shelf, dresser, nightstand...whatever you can think of:

You will need:

Pencil

Tape Measure

Jigsaw

Miter Saw

Countersinking Bit

Wooden Plugs

Sand Paper

Drill

Screws

Nail Gun

Wood Fill

1'x6" boards (length determined by your width of furniture and number of shelves)

Trim boards for the front or 1"x2" boards (length determined by your width of furniture and number of shelves)

Now this DIY will take some calculations on your own. You will need 1"x6" boards, but the length of the boards will be determined by your number of shelves you would like. 

For one shelf you would need:

2 pieces cut 6" Tall

1 piece cut the width of the side of your furniture

When it comes to the trim boards for the front, you can use whatever you want (as long as less than 1" thick.) You just need to buy the length needed to cover the front of the shelves. 

The Steps:

I wanted three shelves, 2 on one side and one on the other.

I cut the sides of my shelf using a miter saw. I made 6 pieces that are 6" tall. 

Next to add some decoration, I wanted to put a curve in my sides using a jigsaw. I measured a mark on one side at 2 inches and 4 inches on the other corner.

Using a paint can, I traced a curve between the two marks.  

Here is my path that the jigsaw will follow.

Cut the 1"x6" boards to the width needed for your furniture. 

Using your miter saw, cut the curve on the sides of your shelves. (This was my first time ever using a jigsaw. I saw it in the box and decided to give it a try. At one point I was having a hard time getting it to cut and I STUPIDLY, stuck my hand under the board! Luckily with my cat-like reflexes I escaped cutting the tip of my finger off and just cut the side pretty deep. It's a lesson why not to do woodworking when you are tired from being 35 weeks pregnant. Turns out it wasn't cutting well because I had hit a knot in the wood.)

You should end up with the sides looking like this: 

 Now you will assemble the shelves. Make marks on the side pieces 1 inch from the edges.

Using a countersinking bit, drill your holes.

Attach your sides to your bottom shelf with screws.

 Here are two of my almost built shelves:

Using your wood plugs, fill your holes where you countersunk the screws.  

Now you want to work on your front of the shelves. Measure the width of your shelf and choose what substrate you would like to be on the front.

 I had some old 1" trim so I decided to use it up on this project. I cut three pieces of the trim to the proper width for each shelf.

Using a nail gun, I attached the trim to the front of my shelves.

I turned out cute, but the trim is so thin that the nail gun cracked a few of the ends. Hindsight, I should have used finishing nails and a hammer.

No biggy-- I just covered up the cracks with wood fill and filled the nail holes.

When your shelves are built, sand down all your pieces.

Attach the shelves to your furniture. In my case it was the Trofast shelf. Attach them from the inside of the furniture out so you can't see the screw heads. Make sure they are level!

It was easier for me to turn my unit on the side to attach them. 

And here is the final product with the shelves....now just to paint and continue on the previous post of Garage Sale Redo: The Ikea Trofast Shelf

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